Must Read News Articles I 5th March 2020

The USA has signed peace deal with the Taliban. The article argues that the peace deal means two things – First is that USA is on its way out from Afghanistan and second is that it does not ensure peace for the people of Afghanistan.

A four-member delegation of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable rights of the Palestinian People had visited Delhi. They have told that during their interaction with the External Affair Minister, the Indian government had reiterated its traditional stand on the issue.

India has remained “steadfast” in its support for Palestinian rights and has consistently voted in favour of Palestine at the UN on “15 key resolutions”. The delegation, however, called for New Delhi to play an “enhanced” role in the search for a solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict.

In the Internet Mobile Association of India v. Reserve Bank of India, the Supreme Court has struck down a circular issued by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) which directed banks not to deal in transactions involving cryptocurrency.

The RBI, in April 2018, had issued a circular barring banking and financial services from dealing in transactions involving virtual currency or Cryptocurrency such as BitCoin. This ban led to plummeting trade volumes and exchanges shutting their businesses. This circular was challenged by IAMAI

In a response to a question in Rajya Sabha, the government has said that it doubled the electronic waste it recycled in 2018-19 over 2017-18. A recycling rate of 10% in 2017-18 has risen to a little over 20% in 2018-19.

In 2017, the Centre passed the E-Waste Management Rules. It requires companies to collect a certain percentage of e-waste generated from their goods once they have reached their “end-of-life”.

Union Cabinet has given its approval for the amendment of various sections of Companies Act. The Centre proposes to amend the Companies Act in a bid to decriminal­ise a number of offences and ease corporate social respon­sibility (CSR) requirements, especially for smaller companies.

Cabinet has given nod to merger of Public Sector bank. It will become effective from April 1, 2020. The consolidation of 10 PSBs into four includes the merger of Oriental Bank of Commerce and United Bank of India into Punjab National Bank, the amalga­mation of Syndicate Bank into Canara Bank, the merger of Andhra Bank and Corporation Bank into Union Bank of India, and the amalgamation of Alla­habad Bank into Indian Bank.